David Mamet Archives — Page 2 of 3

The Great Acting Blog: “Keep Fighting”

25.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

In David Mamet's 2009 film, Redbelt, Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a jiu-jitsu instructor who runs a self-defence school and lives by a samurai's code. He refuses to participate in prize fights, until he is forced into a big, gaudy tournament for television, in order to pay...

The Great Acting Blog: “Tilda Swinton Has Never Auditioned For A Role”

20.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

Apart from for the Royal Shakespeare Company when she was first starting out, Tilda Swinton has never auditioned for a role. Never. All of those wonderful films for artists such as Derek Jarman, Bela Tarr and Jim Jarmusch, and she never auditioned. On her...

The Great Acting Blog: “A Strange And Provocative Manifesto On Creativity”

08.02.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

Placed alongside eachother, the following quotes on the nature of creativity and the artistic process, form a fascinating tapestry of insight. Creativity is a mysterious process, it is not intellectual and comes from a place we do not fully comprehend. I offer the following patchwork of...

The Great Acting Blog: “Don’t Be A Coward, Be An Artist”

27.01.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

Actors have been brainwashed to believe that they only exist, that they only have any value, if they do a certain kind of work given to them by a certain kind of person. This state of affairs works (even if not very productively) for those...

The Great Acting Blog: “Accept Everything”

02.12.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

"Accept everything and get on with it." - David Mamet Sometimes, when we are working on a long term goal, we have to tolerate something less than ideal, something which may seem like drudgery. Is there a way round it? Perhaps, but what if we can't see...

The Great Acting Blog: “David Mamet Directs”

02.07.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 3 Comments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQiGspS6rVg I stumbled upon this old, 1980 Creative Arts Television production about David Mamet rehearsing two of his plays, Dark Pony and Reunion, at The Circle Repertory Theatre in New York City. It's like drama school in 30 minutes, not to mention fascinating in it's own...

The Great Acting Blog: “The Transformational Magic Of Art”

01.07.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

I recently watched an old, Italian giallo from the early 1980s, called A Blade In The Dark. It's about a sound artist who is holed up in a country mansion in order to work on the soundtrack for a new movie. Strange things start happening,...

The Great Acting Blog: “Do We Need Great Acting Anymore?”

28.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

A strict form ( i.e. - precise script, blocking, actions) tests the actors skill and dedication. To fit himself into that form successfully, the actor needs to have superb technique. If everything is loose and open, then the performance will only be crafted to the...

The Great Acting Blog: “Achieve Something Extraordinary”

13.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 7 Comments

If you have no conception of yourself as an artist, if you have no vision of the results you want, if you're not working to please yourself, then you must be unhappy. You're whole life is about trying to satisfy other people in order to...

The Great Acting Blog: “Anyone Can Act In the Same Way Anyone Can Write A Poem”

13.02.2013 , Uncategorized , 1 Comment

[twitter-follow username="ejamesdevereaux" scheme="dark"] "Study voice and movement - learn the difference between the beautiful and the attractive. Learn to analyze a script the way a director should and almost none can...

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